Florida: Without Tax Increase Miami-Dade Libraries Would Keep All Branches Open, But Cut Service

UPDATE:We’ve updated this post with an embed (below) of the preliminary plan presented by the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task force at a meeting today. You can watch a recording of the meeting by clicking here.

Other cost savings would come from sharp payroll reductions and using more part-time workers, limiting the number of books patrons can check out at one time, ending the books-sharing program with libraries outside Miami-Dade, and cutting back the hours on the Bookmobile. The library hopes to encourage self check-outs to save on labor costs, and use a “floating” collection system that would end the practice of each book having a specific library to call home.

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“There’s going to be pain,’’ said Raymond Santiago, the county’s library director. “This isn’t a budget anybody is going to be jumping up and down over. But it’s a reality.”

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Santiago’s contingency plan to cut $20 million from its $50 million budget would avoid the wave of closings county Mayor Carlos Gimenez initially floated last summer in the midst of a similar funding crisis. Burning through the library’s cash reserves let the library avoid that scenario in the current budget. But without a tax increase or drastic spending cuts, the same $20 million gap will be waiting for the library once the 2015 budget year begins Oct. 1.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.